July 6: We left the house at 3 a.m., picking up Lara and Greg from Lea's and headed to the airport. (Poor Ethan didn't have the excitement of going to Europe to motivate him to be up so early. We really appreciate him driving us!) After herding a bunch of students through a massive group check-in and through security and waiting a few hours for our loading time, we finally took off just after 7 a.m. for our flight to Atlanta.
And then we had a long, long layover in Atlanta. Our tour coordinators wanted to make sure that if there were any problems on our initial flight that we would have sufficient time to catch the big, trans-Atlantic flight to London. The airport was tough; I just wanted to curl up on the floor and go to sleep. And it was really, really cold. Other than that, the layover wasn't too bad. I had a good book, we went and had a good lunch at T.G.I.Fridays with the Saville gang, and we didn't lose any students. Oh, and we also got to fly to LONDON afterwards (miraculously, on a chair in the sky, over an entire ocean in less than 10 hours). Once we got on the plane, I set my clock for London time. It was about midnight there. I took out my contacts, took a sleeping aid, and tried to go to sleep. I also had my first two in-flight meals, which woke me from my sleep due to all the noise, but thanks to the food and sleeping, the flight passed quite quickly, and before we knew it, we were filling out forms, landing, unloading, and entering the United Kingdom, getting my very first stamp in my passport.
July 7: We met our city coordinators after we all collected our baggage (including all those over-sized instruments). They gave us a few instructions and eventually we got our massive flight group onto our bus and headed to Windsor, driving on "the other side of the road", which was a little trippy, like looking at the world in a mirror.
We arrived in Windsor and then immediately headed to the castle. Since we were the first group to arrive, we actually had enough time to tour the castle, so it was worth getting up so early. This was my first, real live, genuine castle, and it was crazy standing in buildings that dated back to medieval times. Here the crew is heading toward the castle entrance (this is an outside wall).
I made Brian pretend to shoot an arrow through the arrow hole. I've heard about these and seen pictures, but it was really cool to see one in person!
They made the moat of this castle into beautiful gardens.
We were there for the changing of the guard:
Near where we watched the changing of the guard is St. George's chapel. This was one of my favorite places at Windsor. Construction began in 1475 by Edward IV. While we were in the chapel, we observed a castle-wide moment of silence to honor the victims of the 2005 London Bombings.
Inside St. George's Chapel are dozens of tombs of monarchs, including Edward IV, Edward VI, Henry VI, Edward VII, Henry VIII, Charles I, Jane Seymour, and the current Queen's father, George VI. One of the most touching tombs to me was the one for Princess Charlotte of Wales, who died in 1817 after giving birth to a stillborn baby boy. The monument was one of hope; while those around her mourn her death, two angels escort her spirit to heaven, one of the angels holding her stillborn son.
The architecture was amazing. They wouldn't allow pictures in the chapel (the one above I got from the internet). After the Chapel, we wandered around the grounds some more, got caught in the rain (and got pretty soaked), we went to see the Queen's Dollhouse and the State Apartments. I loved the history, the furniture, the architecture, the interior details, and the amazing portraits--many of which I recognized from my studies in college. There were suits of armor, swords, jewels, robes, so many things so rich in history. And one of the coolest parts of Windsor is that it is still used, still operating, and has been for almost 1000 years! It is one of the Queen's residences.
The castle is massive!
After touring the castle, we went in search of Fish and chips for lunch. We went to one restaurant, and the chef had a thick accent from somewhere else, so I made Brian (who was starving) venture with me to find a better place. I couldn't order British Fish n Chips from some guy who was clearly not a native! We found Kirt and Julie again in this great pub just around the corner, and they had a special going on where you could get two meals for 12 pounds. We got one order of fish n chips, and then I asked the very English men sitting around the bar for a recommendation for a couple of Yanks that had never been to England before. It was ham, chips, and eggs (but they called it something else.) It reminded me so much of breakfasts growing up, and I loved it. I clearly have English blood in my veins. The food there reminded me so much of home.
After lunch, we scurried back to the bus. By then, the very last flight had arrived at Windsor. They only had time to stretch their legs and snap a few pictures of the castle from a distance. And even though I was really, really tired, I was glad we had gotten into London so early.
We headed to our hotel, checked in, had an orientation, and ate dinner. Then, groups headed to musicals and the rest of us took a walk from our hotel into London. Turns out that London city is only 1 square mile, and it is marked on the corners by these pillars with a dragon on top (my kind photographer didn't take a picture with the dragon).
We saw the old London wall that dates back to Roman times:
and St. Paul's Cathedral:
"Feed the birds, tuppence a bag..."
From St. Paul's, we crossed the River Thames on one of the bridges that the Death Eaters destroyed in Harry Potter:
And saw the Globe Theater. They used to tour the Globe on this tour, but apparently the last time they went, a rehearsing troupe mooned all the high school kids. So, we just got to see it from the outside. Still really cool:
And next door to the Globe is an apartment where Sir Christopher Wren lived while he worked on St. Paul's Cathedral. (I studied about Wren in school, so I was pretty excited to see one of his abodes).
After seeing the Globe, we wandered our way back to our hotel, taking a different route, seeing lots of old churches and old buildings mixed in with newer ones. I think some of our students thought we got lost, but we did know where we were headed--the streets we took just didn't lead us in quite the way we thought they would. (We were incredibly impressed with how clean the streets of London are. I have never seen such clean streets, and with such a large population! It was remarkable. ) The poor lot of us was completely exhausted by then, but we soldiered on and made it back to the hotel. We would have immediately crashed if we didn't have to wait for the musical folks to return so we could do room checks. We coordinated room checks better after that first night, but I confess, I was a little grumpy by the time I finally went to bed.
Wednesday, July 8: Morning dawned far too early, but it was okay because we were in LONDON! Side note: Europe doesn't quite believe in air conditioning the way we do. Thankfully, the weather in London was cooler than normal, but it was still a little too warm in our 5th floor hotel room.
After breakfast, we were off once again. This time, a tour guide named Trudy hopped on our bus with us and gave us a tour around London. She pointed out points of interest, all in an adorable accent with funny phrases like, "Bless his cotton socks" and "It was briiiilliant!" We saw "bobbies" (policemen) and GGs (horses--apparently short for G-up. To which Kirt said, "Don't you mean Giddy-up?" Our guide got a kick out of that. It became a smashing inside joke on our bus). Some of the buildings we saw were covered so they could be cleaned. I guess if your city is full of really old buildings, you have to give them a little TLC.
We passed the U.S. Embassy, and Trudy told us about how after 9/11, the whole park in front of the embassy was filled with flowers brought to pay respects. It brought tears to my eyes to hear how much the people of London cared about us, their former rebellious colonies. Although, she did refuse to tell us where the statue of George Washington was. I don't even think she'd say his name. But we did see the statue of Abraham Lincoln. I was surprised to learn that London has several statues honoring our past presidents.
We saw Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey:
And the Parliament Building with it's famous Big Ben:
We walked from Westminster Abbey over to Buckingham Palace:
By the way, if you plan on living here, you're going to have to marry the Queen. Here is the Saville crew in front of Buckingham Palace:
Greg and I were feeling a little left out, so we started taking in-law pictures:
Our guide took us down the street from Buckingham Palace to get us in position for the changing of the guard. There's a bit of a parade as they come, and she got us in prime position to watch. It was pretty awesome:
And then we walked the St. James Park back to the buses, and I took this picture of the palace from afar:
Once we got back on the bus, we headed for the Tower of London. Unfortunately for us, we came on a politically charged day. Parliament was meeting to discuss the budget, and there were protesters in the streets, which meant we sat in basically a parked bus for quite awhile. The Tube workers were also planning on going on strike later that afternoon, so traffic was bad because of that as well. Our bus driver was kind enough to let us eat on the bus so that we could just jump right in once we got to the castle. So, other than a slight mix up with one of our adult travelers, we were able to just go right in.
I always thought that the Tower of London was just a scary tower connected to one of the other Castles. What I didn't realize is that the Tower of London IS a castle with multiple towers. It originally was a fortress that housed monarchs. In fact, it's official name is Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress. It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The main White Tower was built in 1078. We arrived and got right in line to see the Crown Jewels:
And then we went and toured the White Tower--sort of on accident. We wanted to see the Bloody Tower and went in there by mistake. And then we couldn't get out. But we saw lots of swords and I wished that I would have realized when it was built so that I could have stood in more awe of the tower. It was pretty cool, but by the time we finished there, it was time to head back to the bus.
On our way back, we saw the Traitor's Gate where they brought prisoners by boat from the Thames.
We really wished that we had more time to explore there. Many have claimed to see ghosts. I kind of wanted to see a ghost, even though I don't believe in ghosts. My mother would be ashamed.
After the Tower, our bus driver, Tony, dropped us off at the Embankment Gardens. From here, we divided up into groups based on what activities we were headed to. Brian and I took a group to go see the musical Wicked. So, from the gardens, we walked over to the Theater District, taking advantage of a few photo ops along the way--The iconic London Telephone booth with Big Ben:
And with Westminster Abbey:
We got dinner and then went to see Wicked. It was AMAZING! It took a bit to get used to hearing everything in a British accent, but it was fabulous.
And after Wicked, we helped everyone in our group get into taxis, and then Brian and I got in a taxi to head to our hotel. It was my very first taxi ride:
July 9: Concert day. We first headed off to Wesley's Chapel, a Methodist Church built in 1778 by John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement. My favorite part was that our choir director had everyone sing, "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" to help warm up the choir. It is one of my favorites, and it was written by John Wesley.
Across the street is a cemetery where the heretics were buried. Julie said it is really cool, but we didn't have enough time to check it out.
After the choir concert, we headed back over to the Embankment Gardens
for the band concert. Many people just stopped to listen as they were passing through, but there are also some faithful fans. This guy here even had a little Utah flag that he placed on top of his American one. It really touched me to see that. I can't really put into words why, but with an entire ocean and most of a continent between me and home, it warmed my heart to see a piece of home there in that park.
And there was dancing to the music. I just loved London.
After the concert, we again divided up into groups. We took a group to the British Museum. We went to go see a mummy exhibit, and then we went to check out the Ancient Greek and Roman stuff. I was in HEAVEN! And I think there are still scuff marks on the floor from where my jaw dropped onto it.
These statues are from the pediment of the PARTHENON! The REAL Parthenon.
And the friezes from the Parthenon. Yeah, it was like this:
And one of the maidens from The Porch of the Maidens of the Erechtheum.
Someday, I will go to the real Acropolis, but it was nice to see so many pieces of it here in London, even if it is quite controversial. And even if there were lots of naked bums:
We stumbled into the basement where they had all these capitals and pillar pieces. I couldn't keep the smile off my face. Brian says I looked like a kid in a candy store. By far our best decision in London was deciding to chaperon the group that came here. I love Ancient Greek and Roman architecture, which is probably why I couldn't stop taking pictures of the buildings in London--there is so much Roman influence on so much of the architecture. I couldn't get enough!
We rushed to see as much as we could in the little time that we had. We saw sarcophaguses, the Rosetta Stone, got to fist bump this ancient statue:
And saw a bust of Severus Snape's ancestor:
We LOVED the British Museum and wished that we could have given up on dinner to spend more time there.
We had dinner in Covent Garden, which used to actually be a garden (site where My Fair Lady takes place), but now it is a shopping center. I had an authentic British meat pie for dinner, and it tasted like home, even though my mom never made stuff quite like that. Then, we met up again in the Embankment Gardens to get our next group and take them over to ride the London Eye. Half of the group hadn't had dinner yet, so we killed time while we waited for them to eat. We saw a couple of guys like these who were painted to look like statues. They were quite incredible:
Brian and I had a nice, peaceful talk next to the Thames, across from Parliament:
And below the London Eye:
I thought the Eye was more like a Ferris Wheel, but it was more like this big capsule that slowly rotated around the wheel. And from the eye, we got some spectacular views:
All too soon, we were hailing taxis to take the students back to the hotel. We packed up as much as we could and then headed for bed, sad that we were leaving London, but looking forward to the next adventure.
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